Google Blog Gadget 2.0 vs. iGoogle RSS Blog Feeds

December 18, 2008

Google has come out with their second iteration of their Blog Gadget dubbed Google Blog Gadget 2.0.

Their improved blog gadget is a great way to consolidate and view all Google blog posts in one location.

Google Blog Gadget 2.0

Google Blog Gadget 2.0

For six months or longer I have had my own rudimentary version of a Google Blog feed gadget set up within my iGoogle account.

Instead of having to use a drop box to move from blog category to blog category, I instead grab the Google RSS feeds I have an interest in reading fed into one of my many iGoogle tabs.

In doing so I can view all the Google blog posts at one time and then decide which ones I want to view further without having to click more than once.

It takes some time to set up all the Google blog feeds in iGoogle, but once completed you may find the end result was worth the effort too.

See the full list of Google blogs at the Google Blog Directory.

iGoogle RSS Blog Feeds

iGoogle RSS Blog Feeds

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Posted in Google Blog Gadget, iGoogle RSS Feeds | 1 Comment »

Twitter and the 2008 Shorty Award

December 17, 2008

Trending topics @ Twitter today include the term “Shorty Awards”.

According to ShortyAwards.com: the Shorty Awards will honor the world’s top Twitterers – those who have produced the best content in 140 characters or less during 2008 on Twitter.

Shorty Awards

Shorty Awards

I guess this post won’t qualify…

How to participate in the 2008 Shorty Awards:

To nominate someone for a Shorty Award, use form on this site, or send a tweet similar to this: @shortyawards I nominate @someone in category #news because… (but write something of your own).

The text of the tweet is completely up to you. As long as it contains @shortyawards @someone #category you can be as creative with the rest as you like.

You actually have to write something. Just submitting the default tweet doesn’t count.

It will be interesting to see how the (first annual?) Shorty Awards turn out.

There are 25 subject categories for nominations including the catchall category: “Other”.

Shorty Award Categories

Shorty Award Categories

The organizers of the Shorty Awards probably didn’t anticipate the “Other” category would quickly be commandeered by Twittwits to establish less than desirable subject categories like evilgenius and douche to describe and nominate top Twitterers.

While the 24 category winners will probably be excited to learn of their victories, the “Other” category winners probably won’t be tweeting about theirs.

Shorty Award Top Nominees

Shorty Award Top Nominees

For more information visit ShortyAwards.com

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Posted in Shorty Award, ShortyAwards.com, Trending Topics, Twitter | Leave a Comment »

Google Adwords Editor 7.0.0 Update Available

December 16, 2008

Google Adwords Editor update 7.0.0 is available for download now.

Google Adwords Editor 7.0.0

Google Adwords Editor 7.0.0

I don’t know what improvements have been added yet, but will report those I discover.

Update 12-17-08: For more information about specific improvements found in Adwords Editor 7.0 including keyword Quality Scores and First Page Bid estimates visit the Adwords Editor Forum.

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Posted in Adwords Editor, First Page Bid Estimates, Quality Score | Leave a Comment »

Trademark Free Zone?

December 15, 2008

Today while typing in a domain name I was taken to a parked domain hosted by Network Solutions.

I was surprised to find a new type of disclaimer link at the bottom of the parked domain page called “Trademark Free Zone”.

Trademark Free Zone

Trademark Free Zone

More about the “Trademark Free Zone” from Network Solutions:

TRADEMARK FREE ZONE – Network Solutions has no knowledge of whether any content on this page violates any third party intellectual property rights. Network Solutions will promptly remove any content reasonably objected to by the Owner of a pre-existing trademark. If you have a Trademark issue, please contact trademarkfreezone@networksolutions.com.

I don’t recall seeing any other domain registrar other than SRS Renewals (a Network Solutions agent) placing an intellectual property disclaimer on their customer’s parked domains in an attempt to preemptively disavow any responsibility for trademark infringement by cybersquatters.

What caused Network Solutions to institute and launch their “Trademark Free Zone”?

Will GoDaddy.com the largest domain registrar soon include a similar domain squatter disclaimer on all their customer’s parked domains too?

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Posted in Cybersquatters, Domain Registrar, Domain Squatters, GoDaddy.com, Network Solutions, SRS Renewals, Trademark Free Zone | 7 Comments »

Google Analytics Videos on YouTube

December 14, 2008

The Google Analytics blog has announced the launch of the Google Analytics Channel on YouTube.

At this time, the Google Analytics channel consists of 13 videos for how to best use Google Analytics.

Google Analytics Videos

Google Analytics Videos

Analytics video topics range from Tracking Ecommerce to Custom Reporting.

Subscribe to the Google Analytics Channel on YouTube to learn more about how Google Analytics can help you make more informed business and marketing decisions.

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Posted in Google Analytics Videos, YouTube | 6 Comments »

Definition of a Brand

December 13, 2008

Charles M. Berger former brand marketer for H. J. Heinz Co. and CEO of Scotts Miracle-Gro Co. passed away a week ago today.

Mr. Berger developed the messaging which differentiated Heinz ketchup from its competition by positioning Heinz ketchup as “thick and rich” which in turn was brilliantly used to imply Heinz ketchup’s competitors were not.

Mr. Berger’s communications strategy proved to be a profoundly effective brand marketing tactic: Identify what your customers really want and receive from using your brand, then memorialize both its strengths and the competition’s weaknesses in the same few words.

Like all successes – after the fact – it usually looks and sounds easier to do than it actually was. I am sure Berger spent years perfecting the Heinz ketchup brand message.

Ultimately Heinz ketchup television commercials  featured an OK Corral style ketchup duel where Heinz proclaimed it was the slowest ketchup in the west…east, north and south” – effective imagery which conveyed the strengths of his brand while simultaneously contrasting them with his competitors weaknesses.

Simply brilliant.

According to Heinz Chairman and CEO William R. Johnson, Berger’s marketing prowess “enabled Heinz to break out of a tie and gain permanent leadership in ketchup.”

In a 2001 interview with Design Management Journal, Berger gave his definition of a brand:

“A real brand owns a very tiny but important piece of real estate in a consumer’s mind.”

“Heinz ketchup actually looks and tastes the way it did in 1890. In most cases, although you have to keep changing the product, the brand should be immortal.”

Although Mr. Berger is no longer with us  – and provided his successors at Heinz don’t try to rethink or rework his success – Berger’s work on behalf of the Heinz ketchup brand ought to remain as close to as immortal as any brand message has yet become.

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Posted in Brand Manager, Brand Marketing, Brand Message, Marketing Tactic | Leave a Comment »

Google Adwords Device Platform Targeting

December 12, 2008

Last weekend I was experimenting with one of my Google Adwords accounts and noticed a new category of targeting called Device Platform.

Device Platform Bidding

Device Platform Bidding

I intended at the time to write a post about it but didn’t get around to it.

By Monday, the new Adwords device platform targeting option had been officially announced and reported on by the usual cadre of Google bloggers.

After thinking about it further – I realized several months ago while fly fishing in Utah I discovered Adwords ads didn’t display on iPhones and wrote about it here.

From my previous post:

Will Google Adwords advertisers soon be able to select “iPhone” as a search distribution option along with “Google Search” and “Search Partners” within their campaigns Networks and bidding settings?

With 10 million iPhones in use and Apple’s iPhone supplying Google with its largest source of mobile search traffic, adding iPhone distribution to Google advertising campaigns will give Google Adwords advertisers another way to target and reach an increasingly mobile search audience.

Was my blog post and the Adwords creation of their new device platform targeting option pure coincidence or the result of an innocent “tacit interaction” with my blog?

After implementing the device platform targeting option within one of my Adwords campaigns I have since discovered a limitation which otherwise probably hasn’t yet been discovered let alone written about.

I will write more about the Google Adwords Device Platform targeting limitation I have discovered when time permits.

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Posted in Device Platform Targeting, Google Adwords, Tacit Interaction | Leave a Comment »

Interview with Dr. Qi Lu; President, Microsoft Online Services Group

December 11, 2008

Microsoft’s PressPass recently interviewed Dr. Qi Lu, the new President of Microsoft’s Online Service Group about his plans for taking Microsoft’s search products to the next level.

Microsoft Dr. Qi Lu

Microsoft Dr. Qi Lu

Source – Microsoft PressPass

Prior to joining Microsoft, Dr. Lu was executive vice president of Engineering for the Search and Advertising Technology Group at Yahoo. Prior to his 10 years at Yahoo, Lu was a Research Staff Member at IBM’s Almaden Research Center. He also has worked at Carnegie Mellon University as a Research Associate and at Fudan University in China as a faculty member. Lu holds 20 U.S. patents, and received his Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in computer science from Fudan University in Shanghai, and his Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pa.

Excerpts from Microsoft’s PressPass interview with Dr. Lu:

PressPass: Where do you see the opportunities for Microsoft in the search and online space?

Lu: First, I think there is a genuine opportunity to take our search products to the next level. I see that Microsoft’s search product quality is improving at a very, very fast rate, that there are great foundations there. And with the technology base, the talent base, the computing infrastructures, I’m confident that we will be in a position to produce a differentiated and compelling search experience.

The second opportunity is to continue building a very powerful advertising platform. Microsoft has made a series of strategic acquisitions, and also built a bunch of internal technologies and products. The key is to put all those assets together to build powerful, highly scalable advertising platforms. The advertising we see today will be very different in the future because of new platforms for it. Ads will be truly relevant and useful, and the experience will be compelling.

PressPass: Whenever anyone talks about competition in search, the target always is Google. Are they catchable?

Lu: Well, we’re here to win, and my view on this is that to win in the search space, fundamentally you build on the strengths of your product. And we know what it takes to build a compelling user experience and winning product, which is to have a powerful infrastructure, great talent and put great processes in place so that we can out-develop, out-market, out-innovate our competitors.

But make no mistake; I think Google is a very, very powerful company. They are definitely ahead in the search space. There are a lot of challenges ahead. We’ve got our work cut out for us.

It will be interesting to see in which direction Microsoft heads with ex-Yahoo Dr. Lu at the Microsoft search helm.

Will Microsoft resume talks to acquire Yahoo’s search business?

Will Microsoft continue developing their own search product?

Or – will Microsoft now attempt to accomplish both (buy Yahoo’s search business and migrate Yahoo search advertisers to adCenter while attempting to improve Microsoft’s search and advertising products) in their quest to catch Google?

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Posted in Microsoft, Microsoft adCenter, Search, Search Advertisers, Yahoo, Yahoo Search Marketing | Leave a Comment »

Google Zeitgeist 2008: Top Brand Searches from 35 Countries

December 10, 2008

Google has released the 2008 Zeitgeist which includes their list of the fastest rising global searches along with search data from 35 countries.

Fastest Rising Global Searches

Fastest Rising Global Searches

The US Zeitgeist search data categories include Top of Mind, Politics, Trendsetters, Showbiz and Sports along with the following list:

2008 US Google Zeitgeist

2008 US Google Zeitgeist

Google Zeitgeist provides search data for germane categories from within each respective country.

Every country’s Zeitgeist features a list of the “Fastest Rising” search terms.

In addition to the United States, Google’s Zeitgeist is available from the following countries: Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Czech Republic, China, Chile. Columbia, Denmark, Germany, Spain, France, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Austria, Philippines, Russia, Poland, Switzerland, Singapore, South Africa, Finland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom.

google-zeitgeist-2008

The most interesting takeaway from Google’s 2008 Zeitgeist for me was the presence of searches for American brands in nearly every (possibly all – I didn’t have time to translate every non-English language) country’s Fastest Rising lists – irrespective of their country’s native tongue.

Its only natural – since the search engine itself was first invented by American company Hewlett Packard in 1986.

The following are examples of American Made products and their searches from abroad:

Austria iPhone

Austria iPhone

Austria iPhone

Belgium Google

Belgium Google

Belgium Google

Poland YouTube

Poland YouTube

Poland YouTube

Spain Facebook

Spain Facebook

Spain Facebook

Taiwan Chrome

Taiwan Chrome

Taiwan Chrome

United Arab Emirates Facebook

United Arab Emirates Facebook

United Arab Emirates Facebook

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Posted in American Made, Google, Google Zeitgeist 2008, Made in America, Search Data, Search Engine | Leave a Comment »

Graceland in Google Street View

December 9, 2008

The Google Earth and Maps team has doubled their amount of Street View coverage of the United States.

Google Street Views are now available in Memphis, Birmingham, and Charleston (SC), along with the states of Maine, West Virginia, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

With Google Street View, virtual tourists can now view points of interest in the cities and states above like the entrance to Elvis Presley’s Graceland in Memphis shown below.

Graceland Memphis, TN

Graceland Memphis, TN

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Posted in Google Maps, Google Street View | Leave a Comment »

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